


Birth of Jägers

by Para



Category: Girl Genius
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-09
Updated: 2015-11-09
Packaged: 2018-04-30 20:36:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5178746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Para/pseuds/Para
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jägers were born in ritual, amid the corpses of their friends, and before the eyes of their brothers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Birth of Jägers

**Author's Note:**

> This was... supposed to be the first chapter of a fic about a jäger (probably OC, but maybe Jenka) who had just become a jäger adapting. And then it turned into... a character study of jägers? Or of the jägerbrau? Mechanicsburg traditions? Hell if I know.
> 
> I did not use jäger accents in this, partly because I felt like it would disrupt the flow, and partly because jäger accents probably don't register as accents to most jägers (and wouldn't stand out as much in the past even to human Mechanicsburgers).
> 
> Notes at the end are a collection of various sidethoughts I had that didn't fit the tone.
> 
> Warnings: probably some body horror? I'm kind of fuzzy on what crosses that line, but I think some bits of this would, though they're not too extreme. (If you have thoughts on this feel free to tell me.)

Jägers were born in ritual, amid the corpses of their friends, and before the eyes of their brothers.

Not the first few generations, of course, when jägers were still new and the bräu being tested, but it had been centuries since then. Some jägers still lived that remembered those earliest years, who had helped to shape what jägers would be and mean, but jägers were not inclined to thinking about the past; the younger ones rarely asked about their elders' births. Those who did ask were not jägers, and so the eldest never said, and the birth of jägers became a private and timeless ritual.

There were six components to the birth of jägers: The jägerhall, the jägerbräu, the jägers that already lived, the ones to be born that night, the ones to be born in the future, and the Heterodyne. The already-living jägers cleared the jägerhall through the day (though they did not bother to clean it), so that there was space. By nightfall they had all assembled, enemies beaten far away and the town guarded by other monsters and soldiers, under the guidance of whatever other Heterodynes—heirs, younger siblings, or consorts—were in Mechanicsburg.

The already living jägers occupied one end of the hall, standing still. In the center of the hall the jägers to be born that night stood in a ring, and the ones to be born in the future were given chairs at the other end, though none of them yet sat. When the Heterodyne arrived with the bräu, the jägertroth began. The Heterodyne was the only one who did not recite it in unison; he was passing out the bräu.

"I swear my self to the Heterodynes, to guard their power, their secrets, and their line."

When each new jäger had a dose of the brau, they drank. The jägers that had already survived the brau and those who would take it next continued the troth.

"I swear my self to the Heterodynes."

The thing about the jägerbrau was that it was the most painful thing anyone who took it ever experienced.

"I swear my self to the Heterodynes."

If more jägers had been inclined to discuss such things, they would have concluded (and several Heterodynes through the centuries had concluded) that the bräu was the most painful thing anyone could experience. Only the jägers and the Heterodynes knew what that meant, but they knew very well.

"I swear my self to the Heterodynes."

The thing about the jägers was that they wanted to take it anyway.

"I swear my self to the Heterodynes."

There was screaming, of course, but not much. Most new jägers dropped to the ground silently, or with such quiet groans and whimpers that the chanting drowned it out. Those who did scream were certainly not the only ones who died, but they always did.

"I swear my self to the Heterodynes."

The Heterodynes had theorized about it; their belief was that it was because those who screamed were fighting the pain, and therefore the transformation, and the resistance prevented the bräu from working correctly; that the bräu would change the pathways that sustained human life, but be unable to fully create the ones that sustained a jäger, and so the jägers that fought the pain died, and only those who accepted it with no resistance had a chance to survive.

"I swear my self to the Heterodynes."

The jägers only cared that it happened, and that was the purpose of the jägers to be born in the future. They were those who had proven strength and loyalty enough to be offered the jägerbrau, and to want it. But they had not yet seen what the bräu did, and so they stood at the end of the room chanting their troth, watching the newest jägers writhe and seize as their bodies warped and broke or grew. The jägers that had already survived watched, and any of the future jägers that closed their eyes or looked away would be noted, and forbidden from taking the bräu. Those that never flinched away would go to the Heterodyne and ask for the bräu in the next few weeks—they didn't have to, but they always did—and they would be the next to be reborn.

"I swear my self to the Heterodynes."

The troth would last forever, but the chanting did not; within an hour, or very rarely an hour and a half, all of the newest jägers had gone still and unconscious, and the recitation ended. The ritual did not; the older jägers continued to stand, and the Heterodyne and future jägers stood or sat in silence until every one of the newest jägers had woken up or died.

Those that would die usually did within the first few hours, their bodies warped, bones misshapen or broken, teeth grown sharp and often through their lips and face, blood splashed and smeared around them. But those that lived took longer; it was usually almost three days before the last of the new jägers—if there was more than one that lived—awoke.

Everyone politely ignored that Castle Heterodyne could witness and tell about the whole thing, of course, and the Castle didn't speak during the birth of jägers. But only the Castle could be responsible for how, when the jägers and the Heterodyne emerged, the town had always just finished gathering, and the square the jägerhall opened onto contained a ring of ready pyres, one for each jäger that had died.

There were no funerary speeches; the dead jägers were given a hat and burned, and that said all that was needed.

The new jägers were still weak, shaking from pain and on legs they had not yet learned to use, and they would sit in the center of the pyres with the Heterodynes until the fires had burned down to ashes. The older jägers crowded in an uneven ring around the outside of the circle of pyres, just far enough back to not be burned themselves, and the rest of the town stood behind them, or watched from nearby rooftops and windows. Silence was not required, but it was quiet; there were whispers, and tears, and solemn pride. Death was not to be sought in Mechanicsburg, but neither was it to be feared, and to die a jäger was the greatest honor and dream of many. To wish a jäger had not died would have been to claim his death did not come in service to the Heterodynes, and so while there was loss and sorrow, there was not regret.

When the fires had burned down, the Castle took the ashes, opening the ground and swallowing them into some unknown and secret place.

There was a flurry of activity, then, as the townspeople ran to gather tables, chairs, food and drink and instruments, and assemble a celebration. The youngest jägers were usually too shaky to do much—though that didn't always stop them from trying—but they sat at tables or on the ground around the square, ate and drank, and talked or sang until they fell asleep, or were knocked out in an unwisely chosen fight.

When they woke next, they would be in the jägerhall again, carried in by older brothers. They would be stronger then, not so worn out by pain, more aware of how much they'd changed and more aggressive as a result. That meant time for them to learn and relearn; how to control themselves, how to fight, how to identify scents and sounds they never could have caught before. But that was a different tradition, longer and more varied. The ritual was already complete.

A jäger had been born.

**Author's Note:**

> The Lord Heterodyne may show up carrying the brau by hand or by clank, depending on the number of new jägers, personal preference, and whether a Heterodyne had recently had a Fascinating Idea involving clanks that could carry containers of liquids.
> 
> The fastest jäger to wake up from the bräu had been Vole, though only temporarily. He snarled awake after half a day with blood in his nose and his transformation incomplete, and lunged at the nearest living thing with teeth and claws. No one had expected that, or been sure if moving in the midst of the ritual was acceptable, and by the time General Zadipok had lunged over to pull him away, he'd torn into the chest of the jäger next to him. Zadipok told him she had been dying anyway. Once Vole was asleep again to finish his rebirth, Zadipok forbid any jäger from telling him that she might have lived, or about the scent of a new pregnancy that no jäger had mentioned to prevent the premature discovery of her sex, and which she hadn't had the chance to notice.
> 
> I've been thinking for a while that the jägers cremate their dead, as an extension of the "we are Heterodyne secrets" mentality. It's a lot harder to learn jäger biology from ashes than by autopsying a corpse that was just buried. (The jäger's hat, of course, goes on the pyre too.)(Naturally, this has turned cremation into an honor within Mechanicsburg. The circus is lucky Maxim settled for giving Lars a hat and didn't insist that he deserved to be cremated properly, nevermind that small being on an airship detail. Being detached has made him a _lot_ more practical that way.)
> 
> I think there are a couple reasons jägers allow people who might not necessarily end up taking the bräu in for this. First: it really doesn't tell much about jäger secrets; if someone witnessed this and then went to tell about it, whoever they spied for would learn that jägers swore to the Heterodynes (common knowledge), had to drink something called jägerbräu (maybe not too common, but doesn't seem to really be a secret), and that the transformation really hurts and is dangerous (also probably not a big secret). There's nothing about how the bräu is made (unless you count "a Heterodyne makes it" which is... pretty obvious) or what exactly it does, so there really isn't anything to learn from this in the way of Heterodyne secrets. (About jäger culture, definitely, but not Heterodyne secrets.) Also, everyone allowed in that isn't the Lord Heterodyne, already a jäger, or taking the bräu is still someone picked to be a jäger; their loyalty isn't exactly in question. And the jägers hope that this will weed out some people who would otherwise die; since the belief is that they won't survive becoming jägers either way, this way the Heterodynes at least get to keep them (and their service) for some years to decades before they become too old or die.
> 
> This hopefully is clear from the fic... study... thing, itself, but just in case it didn't come through: I'm thinking that the jägers view everyone who drinks the bräu as a jäger from the moment the ceremony starts, even if they then immediately die. The ones that flinch away and are banned from drinking the bräu get a sort of weird half-jäger treatment, where they're sort of as good as a jäger as far as loyalty to the Heterodynes, which is the most important thing... but also were forbidden the bräu for being afraid, which is not exactly something jägers value. So their treatment can range from "just like any other jäger, except maybe I'll not punch you as hard when we get into friendly fights" to "business acquaintance that I will interact with politely when we happen to encounter each other" depending on the jäger. They don't really dislike those people, but can look down on them a bit.


End file.
